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16. Employees Strike, PERS, Vote-By-Mail, and Rocky Butte Jail Closes (1980-1982)
- Oregon State University Press
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161 16 emPloyees strIke, Pers, Vote-By-maIl, and roCky Butte JaIl Closes (1980–1982) Don Clark’s second term as the chief county officer—his first term as “chairman ” and second as “county executive”—included the longest public employee strike in Oregon history. It placed county government squarely in the media spotlight during the summer of 1980 and executive Clark in a position he had never wanted. the walkout lasted five weeks and gave union leaders their core economic demands in exchange for eight-hour workdays to replace the seven-and-a-half-hour days that had been the norm for as long as anyone could remember. the five-column Oregonian headline on Saturday, July 18, 1980, told this story: “78% Stay Out in Multnomah County Strike.” the following Monday morning, county bridge tenders raised the lifts on the hawthorne and Steel bridges and then walked away, leaving stranded commuters fuming on both sides of the Willamette. teamsters jackknifed enough trucks to close the burnside and Morrison bridges as well. the unions generated constant publicity throughout the strike. For example, in August, county employees repainted “Multnomah County Fair” signs to read “Multnomah County UnFair.”1 After a dozen carpenters, steelworkers, and laborers refused to cross a picket line at the west end of the Sellwood bridge, a federally funded $700,000 access improvement project shut down for the entire strike. the Multnomah County Labor Council placed the county on its “unfair list” and personally censured County executive Clark, who had previously enjoyed labor support in every race he ran, except for the year he voted to kill the Mt. hood Freeway.2 before the strike began, the county offered an 8.2 percent wage increase.the nurses’ union, represented by burton White, asked for an 11 percent increase.3 Union Local 88 business Agent Cecil tibbetts agreed to accept a fact finder’s recommendation of a 9.5 increase plus another increase tied to the cost of living 162 chapter 16 in January. No reference was made to the number of work hours per week. the county rejected the fact finder’s opinion. At the time, the county was experiencing significant budget cuts due to a downturn in the economy and major cutbacks in state and federal grant awards. From the employees’ point of view, inflation was growing in double digits and wages were not keeping up. Nevertheless, the county commission had a budget to balance and no hidden pockets from which to pay out additional personnel costs.4 the most important management issue at the bargaining table, in addition to holding the line on wages, was to lengthen the regular work week from 37½ hours to 40 hours. the shorter hours dated back to the traditional white collar “9 to 5” working hours for downtown Portland business establishments.5 the strike occurred during the second year of a county charter change that created an elected county executive separate from the board of county commissioners . While the entire five-member board—earl blumenauer, Dennis buchanan, Gladys McCoy, Dan Mosee, and Gordon Shadburne—voted to authorize the strike, the actual negotiations fell to County executive Clark through his labor relations spokesman, Steve telfer. the five commissioners employed every method possible to avoid crossing picket lines, including ducking in and out of back doors and working from home whenever possible. Commissioner McCoy declined to cross the picket lines altogether, while Commissioner Mosee was unpredictable.6 Clark’s public information officer, helen barney, with Deputy Sheriff Fred Pearce as her field marshal, managed the daunting task of keeping essential services available to the public during the strike. Under the magnifying glass of constant media coverage and picket lines manned by AFSCMe Local 88 (American Federation of State, County, and Municipal employees) and the Oregon Nurses Association, county managers kept county government offices open with skeleton crews and delivered emergency services. As the strike wore on, pressure for a settlement grew while both the county and the unions held fast to their wage positions. Over 1,600 county employees were affected by the strike. the unions estimated that 90 percent of affected workers eventually walked off their jobs.7 toward the strike’s end, an Oregonian article about Don Clark said: “Normally a witty, gregarious man with great zest and verve, Clark looked wan and tired on the 35th day of the strike . . . Many striking county employees, union officials and members of the public labeled Clark as the ‘No. 1 villain’ in the...